When Pieces Don't Fit
by Prose Vanity
Summary: "When pieces don't fit," Sumire grumbled, insanely trimming the offending edges of the troublesome puzzle piece, "grab the damn scissors and cut out the damn edges to make it damn perfect!" The epiphany led her to call Koko and fix her puzzle as well. KxS


**Ashy-note **Man, the inspiration keeps on coming.

I edited _The Day Before Valentine's _because in that fic it said Koko was Nonoko's husband — NO! Koko will be Sumire's until forever, I swear, so I'm sorry about that.

Set after _Welcome Home, _a few weeks after _The Day Before Valentine's_. (:

Dedicated to Maria (as always) and Baby Andrea.

-/-

**When the Pieces Don't Fit**

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><p>She gave a slight start when she heard her apartment door slam closed. The wood rattled in its hinges and all but detached themselves from the wall.<p>

"Mikan! Mikan where the _hell_ are you! I need you mommy-ears, now!"

She heaved a sigh and whispered "Sorry for that, hunny, don't be scared, that's just Auntie Sumi" to her two curious children who were looking rather frightened at the ruckus the cat-dog was making.

"I'm in the kitchen, Permy," she answered back dully. _Probably another break-up_, she thought. When will it end, she had absolutely no idea.

"Don't you _Permy_ me today, Sakura, or I might just bite your head off!"

The light, slender figure of the world-renowned model Sumire Shouda appeared by the doorway of the Hyuuga household's kitchen, where she, Mrs. Hyuuga, was busy tending to her children's makeshift jigsaw puzzle. Sensing the untimely danger the livid supermodel might pose on the pure innocence of her children, she sent them away. "Hana, Suki, go play outside, Mommy will fix these. I just have to talk to your Auntie Sumi, okay?"

The children obliged and not long after they left Sumire dropped down the chair beside her and slammed her head on the table.

"Ow."

Mikan rolled her eyes. This wasn't a nice story, then…

"What is it this time, Sumire?" she asked patiently while reassembling her children's jigsaw. The woman beside her growled. "Koko grating on your nerves?"

"Since when did he _not_ grate on my nerves, Mikan?" Sumire all but screamed at her. She raised her head from the table and watched as Mikan expertly grabbed pieces and threw all together on the board.

"What is it this time, then? I thought you just got back together last week," said Mikan, still with the patient motherly air. Sumire rolled her eyes then rested her chin on top of the table again, closing her eyes, a little exhausted after the dramatic entrance to the house.

"He completely forgot out one hundred and twenty-second weeksary," she mumbled angrily. Mikan froze in the act of putting together the puzzle to look at Sumire, a little puzzled herself about her friend's statement.

"Excuse me?" said Mikan, "He forgot about your _what?_"

"Our weeksary, _Mommy_. He forgot our _weeksary._"

"And what on Earth is 'weeksary' supposed to mean, Permy?"

"I _told_ you not to call me Permy," she grunted through gritted teeth. "Our _weeksary_. Our week-anniversary! He forgot!"

Mikan rolled her eyes. Typical. She should have expected this kind of Sumire drama. "You're mad because Koko forgot that it was the day of the week when you got together?"

"Yes!" yelled Sumire, throwing her hands up in the air in enragement. "Yes, yes, _yes!_"

She resumed to putting the puzzle pieces together and kept silent. She knew Sumire well enough to know that if she even bothered replying she'd only be fanning the fire. Besides, after Sumire calms down she eventually starts to think better. After all, the cat-dog wasn't such a (braggy, hounding, narcissistic, vain) two-star for nothing during their Academy days.

"How do you two do it?" Sumire suddenly asked after a few minutes of silence. Once again she was caught off-guard at her friend's question and for a moment she stopped putting together the pieces.

"How do we do what?"

"You know, stay together," the cat-dog said. She was a little calmer now, while she fiddled with pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. With a thoughtful look at the piece she held in her think fingers, she began helping in putting them together while talking. "I mean, you and Natsume are practically opposites, you know, North Pole and South Pole and all that crap. You two should be on each others' throats every few seconds or so, so how do you do it?"

"We are in each other's throats every few seconds or so," Mikan said a little smugly. "That part never changed."

"I know, but that's not what I mean."

Mikan smiled wanly at her friend. "I know what you meant, and I don't know the answer to that, Perms."

She flashed Sumire a warm, motherly smile, something which irked her into rolling her eyes.

"Oh, don't give me that _'It's just the magic of love'_ shit, Mikan," Sumire suddenly blurted out, evidently realizing what Mikan had in mind and picking a puzzle piece up none too gently. "That's just lies, pure lies, and we all know that."

"True," Mikan said, if only to appease Sumire's raging self, "but I really don't know."

"You still believe in fairy tales."

"Well, if you have got a husband like mine, and two children like mine, you'd actually believe in fairy tales. You have got no idea."

And as if to emphasize her point, the door creaked open and in came the husband, holding both children in each of his two arms. He sauntered over to where they were seated and carefully assembling the huge jigsaw. He gave Sumire a small smile in acknowledgement then leaned over to kiss Mikan. "I'm home, love," he told her, standing up straight and putting down his two bickering children (Hana kept pulling at Suki's hair and she ended up poking him in the eye, which made Hana burn her pigtails). "What're you two doing?"

Mikan clicked her tongue. "Right now I'm kind of partly this and that."

Natsume spared a glance at Sumire's dejected form and at the huge, blank puzzle they were putting together. "Let me guess, part-time psychologist and part-time puzzle solver?"

"Got that right. I told you never to buy substandard puzzles."

"Hey, that's a gift from your perverted sempai, don't blame me."

"Oh, shut it. It's difficult enough without you haggling him to take your place when I knew you were the one who really bought this."

"Not."

"To."

"Not."

"Oh, will you two stop!" Sumire broke in, crushing her palms to her ears, eyes all scrunched up. Natsume gave her a rather surprised looked, which Mikan dismissed with a curt nod that pointed to the children. He took the hint.

Natsume smiled and gave Mikan a small kiss on the forehead before running after his children at the backyard. "I'll get the barbecue going," he said before closing the door.

Mikan looked reasonably happier, but Sumire got even more drowned in misery than what she deemed was completely necessary. She wanted to puke, actually, if not for that fact that Natsume was such an eye-candy that her bile got stuck in her throat halfway before it was even out her mouth. The fan-girl in her never left, especially when graced by Natsume's presence which, considering her current relationship status and the fact that Mikan was the only person patient enough to keep listening to her rambles, was very often.

Her eyebrows furrowed with the deep thoughts that penetrated her brain as she watched unseeingly at how Mikan smiled gently at their small achievement of putting together the two-thousand-piece jigsaw. She looked out the window behind her and saw Natsume chasing little Hana while Suki played in the sandbox, creating a sand castle. Out of nowhere Hana came up and smashed the entire building, which put Suki off and which also caused her to create a small spark of flames in her brother's head, which also then caused Hana to cry—Natsume gently put off the fire and bent down on one knee and Sumire saw him talking to his little girl seriously. The girl nodded her mop of brown hair and Natsume smiled warmly at her, ruffling her hair in the process.

Sumire started to think that maybe Mikan was right… if _she_ had this kind of a family she might actually think fairy tales happen in real life. But then, the idea of Koko snaked back into her thoughts and with a grudge she swallowed and grunted and growled, turning away from the happy garden scene and dwelling on her negative thoughts instead.

Their happy family just irked her even more… _how_ could they stay so… so… _happy?_

For all she knew Mikan and Natsume were perfect for each other, but why did their family have to be _this_ perfect, too? First attempt at pregnancy and they got twins. Now Mikan was pregnant with a third child. Natsume was doing well in business.

On the other hand, she had a boyfriend who wasn't an inch sweet, who was frequently forgetful and often not thoughtful _and_ most of the time insensitive! She was beautiful (of course she'll always think that) and she had a stable job and… well, to put it short, she and Koko just didn't fit!

It felt like they were part of the same puzzle but one of them got manufacturing errors which threw them all out of place. And she's pretty much convinced _she_ wasn't the error here.

Oh, damn this life of hers!

"Look at me and Koko," Sumire began again after snapping out of her train of thoughts. "We're a mess! We fight here and there and he does the stupidest things and… we just can't seem to get along! And when you come actually _think_ of it we're exactly like you and Natsume—well, not _exactly_ exactly but we're close enough to you two and yet we're so far from achieving the level of perfection you two seemed to have earned so freakin' effortlessly! It's like you get all the good vibes and the rest are dumped on me. What do you think I should do?"

"Why do ask _me_? If you think I've got the good things then surely I don't know anything about the bad ones," Mikan smoothly replied; she released a breath picked up the last piece, then murmured, "No, this can't be…"

Sumire cared nothing for the damn puzzle. "You're the _mother!_ You're the one whose patience should be longer and whose wisdom meets the best!"

"Well…" Mikan was mumbling distractedly, still vexed by the puzzle piece; again, Sumire didn't care. "Well… that part only applies to my real kids, Perms, not to diabolical neurotic friends…" she raised the piece higher into the light. "…_Why? _This can't be…"

"Well, consider me a practice ground for children's advices! Just—oh, dammit, say something, Mikan!"

Unfortunately, Mikan wasn't listening. Sumire felt a little annoyed, and the irritation grew as she watched Mikan's crisis, finally able to grasp what Mommy was so preoccupied about—the last of the puzzle pieces wasn't fitting in with the last hole.

"I still don't get it…" Mikan mumbled. Her face was so contorted with confusion that Sumire sighed, trying to keep her temper in check—her anger was reaching its dangerous peak.

Here and there Mikan tried rotating the piece just so it would fit, and then Sumire had to wait for minutes on end just so she could get Mikan's attention back to herself, but to no avail. The mommy brunette was so absorbed in her dilemma that her patience actually snapped and she walked over to the kitchen desk, rummaging in the cutleries, and drew out a kitchen knife. None too gently she grappled the troubling part and started snipping off here and there, muttering distractedly as she did so. Mikan looked shocked out of her wits watching Sumire growl angrily.

"_When—_" SNIP _"—the pieces don't—"_ SNIP _"— fit,—"_ SNIP "—_grab the damn scissors and_—" SNIP "—_cut out the damn edges_—" **SNIP **"—_to make it damn—_" _**SNIP‼ **_"—_PERFECT!_"

Breathing heavily, Sumire threw the now-perfectly-cut puzzle part back at Mikan.

It took her a little longer to figure out why Mikan was smiling contentedly, and then the reality of her sudden statement hit her.

…_Grab the damn scissors and cut out the damn edges to make it damn perfect!_

Damn that hit her right.

Right away she grabbed her purse and gave Mikan a swift kiss on the cheek before leaving the cottage house after hearing Mikan's angelic voice say, "Thanks for the cut, Sumire!"

Fishing out her phone when she was right outside the Hyuuga residence, she called Koko.

"_Yes?"_ Koko answered from the other line.

"We're going out," she said without so much as a hi-hello. "Now."

"_What? Now? Why?"_

She smiled despite herself. "Because I'm gonna cut the damn edges to make us a damn perfect couple. Now scram."

She flipped her phone closed and smiled even more contentedly at herself.

This was a fairy tale, too… only much, much better.

At least she believed so.

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><p><em>I know, completely random ending. Sorry!<br>~Ash_

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><p><strong><em>A little side-story...<em>**

"Cat-dog was looking so vicious," said Natsume when he came into the kitchen again. Mikan hummed to herself in satisfaction. "What was she doing, brandishing a knife at you like that?"

"She wasn't," Mikan told him, a small knowing smile on her face. "She was just too - _ah - _preoccupied, so to speak, that she actually thought the kitchen knife were the kitchen _scissors_. She never noticed, so I never bothered."

"She's crazy."

She perked a disbelieving eyebrow. "You just noticed?"

"No, I just said so," he muttered. "She broke the puzzle?"

"No, actually," she said. "She fixed it. I told you Class A products suck, and the last piece wouldn't fit. No wonder Hana got annoyed with it."

"She cut off the edges with a knife?" Natsume looked half alarmed, half exasperated - the drama was _endless_, it seemed, and even more far-fetched; somehow, though, deep inside, he knew it was to be expected from Sumire anyway, so he just settled with a repressive smirk. "Never ends, does it?"

Mikan shook her head, sighing but laughing a little all the same. "Nope. It never will."

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